Minas Michikyan

Research Report: Can you tell who I am? Neuroticism, extraversion, and online self-presentation among young adults

The present study examined the link between neuroticism, extraversion, as well as presentation of the real, the ideal, and the false self on Facebook. Self-reports were collected from 261 young adults (ages 18-30) about personality, online self-presentation, and Facebook use. Level of extraversion was positively associated with Facebook activity level. A series of regression analyses revealed that young adults high in neuroticism reported presenting their ideal and false self on Facebook to a greater extent whereas those low in extraversion reported engaging in greater online self-exploratory behaviors. Findings suggest that young adults who are experiencing emotional instability may be strategic in their online self-presentation perhaps to seek reassurance, and those who have self-doubt further explore their self online.

Can You Guess Who I Am? Real, Ideal, and False Self-Presentation on Facebook Among Emerging Adults

Emerging adulthood is an important period for self-development, and youth use online contexts for self-exploration and self-presentation. Using a multiple self-presentation framework, the present study examined emerging adults’ presentation of their real self, ideal self, and false self on Facebook, and the relation between their identity state, psychosocial well-being, and online self-presentation. Participants (N = 261; 66 males, 195 females M age 22) completed self-report measures of identity state, well-being, and self-presentation on Facebook. Respondents reported presenting their real self more than their ideal self and false self on Facebook. A path analysis suggested that emerging adults who reported having more coherent identity states also reported presenting their real self on Facebook to a greater extent. However, those with a less coherent sense of the self and lower self-esteem reported presenting their false self on Facebook to a greater extent. Implications for methodology and future directions are discussed.

The effects of text, audio, video, and in-person communication on bonding between friends

Considerable research on computer-mediated communication has examined online communication between strangers, but little is known about the emotional experience of connectedness between friends in digital environments. However, adolescents and emerging adults use digital communication primarily to communicate with existing friends rather than to make new connections. We compared feelings of emotional connectedness as they occurred in person and through digital communication among pairs of close friends in emerging adulthood. Fifty-eight young women, recruited in pairs of close friends, engaged in four conversations each: in-person, video chat, audio chat, and instant messaging (IM). Bonding in each condition was measured through both self-report and affiliation cues (i.e., nonverbal behaviors associated with the emotional experience of bonding). Participants reported feeling connected in all conditions. However, bonding, as measured by both self-report and affiliation cues, differed significantly across conditions, with the greatest bonding during in-person interaction, followed by video chat, audio chat, and IM in that order. Compared with other participants, those who used video chat more frequently reported greater bonding with friends through video chat in our study. Compared with other participants, those who spoke on the phone more frequently with their participating friend reported greater bonding during audio chat. Use of textual affiliation cues like emoticons, typed laughter, and excessive letter capitalization during IM related to increased bonding experience during IM. Nonetheless, a significantly lower level of bonding was experienced in IM compared with in-person communication. Because adolescent and emerging adults’ digital communication is primarily text-based, this finding has significant real-world implications.

Undocumented Undergraduates on College Campuses: Understanding Their Challenges and Assets and What It Takes to Make an Undocufriendly Campus

In this article, Carola Suarez-Orozco and colleagues investigate how to improve undocumented undergraduate student experiences across a variety of US campuses. The authors draw on a national survey of diverse undocumented undergraduates attending two- and four-year public and private institutions of higher education. Using an ecological framework that accounts for risk and resilience, Suarez-Orozco and colleagues provide insights into the challenges undocumented undergraduates face and the assets they bring as they navigate their educational contexts. The authors also consider the role of campuses in shaping these experiences and make recommendations, based on quantitative data and the perspectives of students, for creating undocufriendly campuses.

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words: A Mixed Methods Study of Online Self-Presentation in a Multiethnic Sample of Emerging Adults

Using a mixed methods approach, this study examined the meanings that emerging adults (N = 261; 195 women, 66 men; M age≈22 years old) ascribed to their online self-presentation. A thematic analysis based on 761 Facebook photo descriptions and 714 wall posts and status updates revealed that these emerging adults presented their individual, social, gender, ethnic, and spiritual identities as well as their positive, neutral, and negative affective states online. Individual and social identities were presented more frequently than other types of identities, and were linked to positive and negative affective states. The emerging adult women presented their social and gender identities in their photos more frequently, whereas the men presented their individual identity more often. When presenting their individual identity, women disclosed positive states more frequently whereas men disclosed neutral states more often. Latino American participants presented their individual identity less frequently than their Asian and European American peers, whereas Asian American participants presented their gender identity less frequently than their Latino and European American peers. When presenting their individual and social identities, Asian American participants disclosed neutral states more frequently and positive states less frequently than their Latino and European American peers. Findings have implications for the psychosocial development of emerging adults from ethnically diverse backgrounds, as well as for theory and research about self-development within online contexts.

Adolescent Media and Social Media Use Implications for Development

As youth grow up in an ever more connected world with evolving media and social media landscape, how will the ubiquitous use of these media affect their sense of self and others? Consider the adolescent doing homework on a laptop with headphones on listening to music, texting friends on a smartphone, updating a status on Facebook or Instagram using a tablet, while the TV is playing in the background. Such scenarios have become commonplace. Indeed, media and social media play an important role in the daily lives of young people (Lenhart, 2015), and have become important contexts for development among adolescents and young adults (see Michikyan & Subrahmanyam, 2012; Subrahmanyam & Šmahel, 2011, for a review). Youth are not merely influenced by their digital world; they are the creators— actively and interactively constructing and reconstructing their identities; establishing, re-connecting, or “de-friending” relationships; as well as challenging and transforming cultural norms in online and offline contexts (Galarneau, 2011, 2012; Rutledge, 2013). As developmental research on youth social media use continues to accumulate, a more nuanced picture of adolescents and young adults, and their digital world, is needed. Extant developmental research suggests that adolescents and young adults use social media for self-presentation and selfdisclosure, and these behaviors are linked to their identity and intimacy development and well-being (see Bartsch & Subrahmanyam, 2015; Michikyan & Subrahmanyam, 2012; Subrahmanyam & Šmahel, 2011, for a review). Identity—a central developmental task—may be facilitated by the opportunities afforded to young social media users. These online spaces provide diverse groups of youth opportunities to reveal and express different 643801 JARXXX10.1177/0743558416643801Journal of Adolescent ResearchEditorial introduction2016

Enacted Identities of Immigrant-Origin Emerging Adult Women in Online Contexts: Capturing Multiple and Intersecting Identities Using Qualitative Strategies

ABSTRACT Using a multiple intersecting identities enactment framework, and a qualitative methodology, this article examined the multiple and intersecting identities immigrant-origin emerging adult women enacted online and explored the meanings they ascribed to these identities (N = 14, M age ≈ 20; 57% = second-generation immigrant). Thematic analyses of 84 narratives revealed that the immigrant-origin emerging adult women enacted a range of identities online including: personal/individual, relational/social, gender, ethnic, civic, student, occupational, and athletic. Personal/individual and relational/social identities were enacted most frequently, and intersected most often. First-generation and second-generation immigrant women were somewhat similar in the rate with which they enacted their identities online. Results showed that second-generation immigrant women enacted their personal/individual, ethnic, and civic identities as well as their intersecting identities online most often. Findings have implications for theory and research about online enactment of multiple and intersecting identities among immigrant-origin youth.